Course Information

Class Meets: Monday and Wednesday, 3:30pm-5:15pm
Class Location: Cowell Hall 113
Web Page: http://web.cs.usfca.edu/courses/cs682
Mailing List: https://cs.usfca.edu/mailman/listinfo/cs682

Instructor Information

Instructor: Sami Rollins
Office: HR 544
Email: srollins@cs.usfca.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2:30pm-3:30pm, Wednesday 2:30pm-3:30pm, Thursday 10:30am-11:30am, and by appointment.

Pre-requisites

CS 601 - Object-oriented Software Development

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the complexities and challenges of building distributed systems
• Be able to quickly learn and apply new technologies
• Practice implementing distributed systems

Required Texts

George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore and Tim Kindberg, Distributed Systems Concepts and Design Fourth Edition, Addison Wesley/Pearson Education June 2005

Grading Information

Grades will be based on exams (2), labs (5), projects (3), and class participation. Grades will be distributed as follows:
Exam 1: 15% Final Exam: 20%
Labs: 20%
Projects: 40%
Participation: 5%
Note: I reserve the right to change the distribution and add assignments as necessary.
Final grades will be assigned as follows:
100 - 93.0 - A
92.9 - 90.0 - A-
89.9 - 87.0 - B+
86.9 - 83.0 - B
82.9 - 80.0 - B-
79.9 - 77.0 - C+
76.9 - 73.0 - C
72.9 - 70.0 - C-
69.9 - 67.0 - D+
66.9 - 63.0 - D
62.9 - 60.0 - D-
59.9 - 0 - F

You will have two exams: a midterm and a final. Make-up exams will only be given in the event of an emergency verified by the dean's office.

You will have approximately 5 labs, weighted equally. The labs are an opportunity for you to practice using a new technology, such as XML. Your completed labs will also serve as the basis for your larger project assignments. Labs may be submitted up to 24 hours late for a maximum of 50% credit.

You will have 3 or 4 projects, weighted equally. In most cases, the projects will build on your completed labs and other projects. A demonstration will be required for most projects. A project may only be submitted late in the case of an emergency verified by the dean's office.

Academic Honesty

ALL assignments are to be completed individually unless specified, in writing, on the assignment. Academic dishonesty will NOT be tolerated. This is your warning! Students are encouraged to meet with me if they have questions regarding assignments or this policy. Students caught cheating will face severe penalty.

Students may:

• receive help from the professor.
• discuss the requirements of the assignments, the meaning of programs, or high-level algorithms with other students or outside sources. If you have any doubt with respect to what is acceptable to discuss, speak with the professor first.

Students may NOT:

• look at another student's code.
• look at another student's solutions to homework problems.
• receive unapproved help from an outside source including a tutor or a family member.
• submit code which has, in whole or in part, been copied from any other source (including another student, a web page, or another text).
• submit solutions to problems (including exam questions) which have, in whole or in part, been copied from any other source (including another student, a web page, or another text).

Requirements

• Any help from a source other than the professor, the lab assistant, or a TA must acknowledged. Example sources that must be cited are a parent, a family friend, and an outside tutor.
• If you wish to get a tutor in the course, speak with the professor.
• Any code submitted by a student must be completely original. No portion of a student's code may be copied from any other source (including, but not limited to, another student, a web page, or another text).

Penalties

• Students caught violating the academic honesty policy will face severe penalty. A first offense will result in a 0 on an assignment and a report to the Dean's office.

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Sami Rollins